BEIJING, May 20: China will drastically raise export tariffs on 74 categories of textile products, the government said on Friday, in an apparent effort to avert further confrontation with the United States and Europe over the surge of Chinese goods in their markets.

The increase, which takes effect on June 1, could be as much as 400 per cent for most of the products, the official Xinhua News Agency said in a one-sentence dispatch. No other details were given.

Meanwhile, European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum regional meeting in Jordan that he welcomed steps taken by China on Friday to curb the rise in its textile and garment exports, but said he needed to check whether tariff increases were sufficient.

“I welcome what they are doing but I will need to look carefully at its likely effect and whether it will be sufficient,” the European Trade Commissioner said.

China said earlier it would increase tariffs on a range of textile exports to cool its trade dispute with the United States and the EU over a flood of cheap textile and clothing shipments since a global quotas regime was abolished on Jan. 1.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, stepped uppressure on China this week to restrict its exports, seeking emergency talks on T-shirts and flax yarn that could lead swiftly to curbs on imports into the 25-nation bloc.

The United States on Wednesday imposed quotas to limit growth of Chinese imports to 7.5 per cent a year. They apply to men’s and boy’s cotton and man-made fibre shirts, man-made fibre trousers, man-made fibre knit shirts and blouses, and combed cotton yarn.

On May 13, Washington imposed similar restrictions on Chinese-made cotton trousers, cotton knit shirts and underwear.

Under terms agreed by China when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the EU could cap the rise on imports from China within 15 days of the start of formal consultations if Beijing took no effective action to limit exports.—APP/Reuters